Chapter 6
Themes
SharePoint themes are a great way to brand a site as they help you instantly change the look and feel based on your corporate identity requirements. Themes are a key tool in the customization of SharePoint sites. This is particularly true for Windows SharePoint Services V3 (WSS) sites, which, unlike Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) sites, are not as easily customized via master pages. Despite their usefulness, themes can be challenging to work with in a consistent manner across SharePoint sites.
This chapter will explain what themes are and how they help you “skin” SharePoint sites. Then it will cover why themes should be used over other approaches. After discussing the “what” and the “why,” this chapter will discuss how to create a theme using the design that was created in previous chapters. It will walk through the steps in how designers can create themes for their organizations with Photoshop CS3 and SharePoint Designer.
SharePoint Themes
If you are familiar with ASP.NET 2.0, you have probably come across the concept of themes. Themes, to put it simply, allow designers to set up “skins” for the sites they develop. This means that there is a defined set of colors and attributes to the site that you pass on to all of the pages that make up the site. This collection of colors, styles, and design rules is called a “theme.”
SharePoint themes are used for “skinning” SharePoint sites. These themes incorporate skin files that dictate the look and feel ...
